


(Keep Missing the) Signs

by misura



Category: Lie to Me (TV)
Genre: Community: smallfandomfest, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-19
Updated: 2014-01-19
Packaged: 2018-01-09 06:38:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1142706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I like him," Loker says. "He seems interested in what I have to say."</p><p>"Sure he's not in it just for your looks?" Lightman asks. "Or is that not a thing with you?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Keep Missing the) Signs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [crazy_echo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazy_echo/gifts).



> prompt: _Cal/Loker, Jack Rader has taken an interest in Loker and Cal is hating it_

"How about, say, twice the salary you're making right now?" Rader asks, and Loker'd have laughed in his face if it hadn't been for the fact that they're in a really nice restaurant, having a really nice meal for which Rader will pick up the not nearly as nice tab.

"Sounds good," he says, once he trusts his voice. (It helps that there's wine at hand.)

Rader looks pleased. "Is that a 'yes'?"

Loker considers the pros and cons of staying for dessert. "That's an 'I'll think about it'."

 

Torres, predictably, completely fails to see the point. (Lightman's right about naturals - they're just so frustratingly oblivious sometimes. Lots of times.)

"It's a pretty generous offer."

"Newsflash, in case you'd forgotten: my current salary is zip." He does make _some_ money - enough not to starve. Enough to keep on paying the rent, even though he's started to look around for a cheaper place. "Two times zip is still zip."

"Well, I mean, he couldn't know that," Torres says. "Could he?"

"Lightman probably told him." Lightman _definitely_ told him. Loker can just imagine that particular conversation - 'yes, so that employer of mine you were looking to poach? I canceled his salary for blabbing about one of our clients to the IRS'.

Torres frowns. "From what I heard, they're not exactly friends."

"So what? You think Lightman wouldn't use someone just because he doesn't like them?"

"Use them for what? Why would he give that sort of information to Rader?" Torres asks, once again magnificently missing the obvious.

"Oh, I don't know. To make me look like an idiot?" Loker throws up his hands in a gesture of defeat.

"It doesn't even occur to you that maybe - just maybe, he did it to help you, does it?" Torres asks.

"You think that's maybe because it _doesn't_ help me?" Loker asks. Lightman doesn't help people, anyway - not unless they're clients, anyway, and even then, he only helps them to find the truth.

The truth, Loker knows all too well, is far from pretty as a rule. It's why people lie so often.

 

"You mentioned some .... interesting theories during dinner," Rader says. His voice oozes sincerity over the phone, which is pretty clever. Loker can tell it's a bit overdone, obviously, but he's not good enough to be able to tell what's underneath it just by listening. "I'd love to hear more."

Foster got expensive flowers. Loker's seen them, spotted the card lying in the trash, torn. He can easily guess by whom.

"You would?" he asks. Lightman's started this thing, really - the least Loker can do is play along.

"Absolutely. Are you free tomorrow night?"

Loker wonders who Rader's meeting with this night, if it's anyone he knows. "Let me check."

It's been a very long time since Loker's been on a date. He blames it on the job, on Lightman's unreasonable expectations and demands.

He wishes desperately that he'd regret not quitting when he got the chance every now and then.

 

"Big date?" Lightman asks, when Loker runs into him the next day.

It's six-ish and they're not working on anything special, so Loker's got no reason whatsoever to feel embarrassed. His workday ended a full hour ago, and he never gets paid for overtime.

"Dinner date with a friend of yours," Loker says, and then, because Lightman looks so very much not interested in whom Loker might be having dinner with, "Jack Rader."

He catches a flash of anger, contempt. No surprises there.

"Not a friend," Lightman says. "In fact, not even close."

"I like him," Loker says. "He seems interested in what I have to say."

"Sure he's not in it just for your looks?" Lightman asks. "Or is that not a thing with you?"

"Sorry, what?" Loker feels he's lost control of this conversation.

"Well, can't be your brains he's after, is it?" Lightman says. "Clearly. So, off you go, then."

"I am going off," Loker says. "I'm leaving."

Lightman looks at him expectantly, and Loker gets that odd fluttering feeling in his stomach he always gets when Lightman looks at him like that. (He doesn't get it when Jack Rader looks at him. That's no reason to pass up on a decent salary, though - or it shouldn't be.)

"Good night."

"Have fun on your 'date'," Lightman says, and Loker hears the air quotes, the contempt.

If he was a little bit sure that his own face only showed anger, he'd have turned around to give Lightman a piece of his mind.

As it is, he simply keeps walking, feeling Lightman's eyes on him (knowing he's imagining it, because Lightman's got way better things to do with his time than stare after Loker.)

 

"Give me a number," he tells Rader, in between the main course and dessert. "Something solid."

Rader looks disappointed. "I thought we were going to talk a bit more about your observations of herd behavior in WalMart shoppers."

"You don't care about my observations of herd behavior in WalMart shoppers," Loker says. "You just want to get one up on Lightman. Fine, I'm willing to play, provided you're willing to put your money where your mouth is."

Rader flashes something that very closely resembles surprise. "Eli - may I call you Eli? I assure you, cross my heart and hope to die, my intentions are entirely honorable." A pause. "Well, in regards to your job, anyway. Now, if you wanted me to find you a position, I'd be happy to help, of course."

_Can't be your brains he's after, is it?_

Loker hates it when Lightman is right. (Lightman, alas, is nearly always right.) "This was a date."

"Still is," Rader says, and his smile is mostly sincere. His pupils are slightly dilated, too.

"You sent flowers to Foster," Loker says. _And Lightman tore up the card._

Rader shrugs. "Foster is a very attractive woman. Very loyal, too. A pity."

"I'm loyal, too," Loker says, stung. He's ordered ice cream for dessert - something delicious and expensive. _Sure he's not in it for your looks?_ "And attractive."

Rader looks amused. "I agree."

"Does this look like the face of someone who's attracted to you?" Loker asks. Lightman's probably laughing his ass off, back at the office. He might be right to do so, this one time.

"Your pupils are dilating," Rader says, and leans forward.

 

It's not quite the worst kiss of Loker's life.

It's definitely the worst end of a date, though.

(He's never been actually thrown out of a restaurant before.)

 

"Let's face it, I'm _never_ going to find another job," Loker tells Torres the next morning. "Not now." She doesn't look entirely sympathetic, but she's the best Loker's got, so.

"Well, you didn't have to hit him, did you?" she says. "You could have just turned your head or something." It's probably what _she_ does. Has done, more often than Loker's been on a date.

"He said my pupils were dilating," Loker says. "I thought maybe - you know."

Torres arches an eyebrow at him. "You thought what? That you were secretly attracted to him? That is ridiculous, even for you."

"It happens."

"No, it doesn't," Torres says. "Nu-uh. You're attracted to someone, you _know_ you're attracted to them. So who were you really thinking of?"

"No one," Loker says quickly. Too quickly.

Torres doesn't push. "If you say so."

"Lightman," Loker says, cracking under the pressure of her judging look. "I was thinking about Lightman."

"Okay." Torres looks slightly dazed. "Wow. That's - "

"I'm screwed," Loker says.

"Celibacy's a perfectly healthy way of life," Torres says.

 

"Loker," Lightman says, "not leaving us for someone better then, are you?"

"Nope," Loker replies. He's abandoned the idea of radical honesty quite a while ago. It charmed people, sometimes, but it annoyed them more often.

A bit like Lightman, really. It always got a rise out of people - not like it is between him and Lightman, where nothing Loker says seems to have an impact, while _everything_ Lightman says has an impact on Loker.

"Would you have missed me if I'd gone?"

Between them, Lightman is definitely the better face reader. It's why Loker asks the question with his face towards the computer screen.

"No," Lightman says. "Can't say that I would've."

"Yeah, well, _I_ would have. Missed you." Loker swivels his chair. Lightman's leaning against the desk, slouching a little. "Because as it turns out, I'm secretly lusting after you."

"Well, it's not much of a secret if you're telling me, is it?" Lightman says. His tone, his face betrays nothing. Loker wonders why he's not filming this, so that he can rewatch it later, slow down the images to look for the signs that he knows must be there.

"Did you know?" Loker asks. The feeling of frustration is very familiar - but then, disappointment only happens when you had some foolish hope to begin with.

"You went on a goddamn date with Jack bloody Rader," Lightman says, and Loker doesn't need a slowed-down video to recognize anger, anger, anger. "You think I would've let that happen if I'd known I was the one you really wanted to get off with?"

"I thought he wanted to offer me a job."

"He did," Lightman says. "Until I called him and told him I'd crucify him if he did that."

"Oh." Loker waits to feel a bit of anger of his own. It doesn't come. "Why?"

"Because you're a bloody idiot," Lightman says. "Did you plan on hitting me, too, if I made a move on you? 'cause I should warn you, unlike Rader, I hit back."

"Yes," Loker says. "I mean, no. I mean - "

"Christ," Lightman says, and reaches for him.


End file.
